A Guide to United Arab Emirates Legal System Essay

A Guide to United Arab Emirates Legal System - Essay Example The UAE Legal System The legal system of the United Arab Emirates is founded upon the Constitution as approved by the Federal National Council in 1996. The Constitution replaced the provisional documents which had been periodically renewed since the UAE was established in 1971 (Info-Prod Research, 1999). The Constitution functions as the basic law of the land, specifying the purpose of the establishment of the federation, its components and objectives, and the public rights, responsibilities, and freedoms protected in the federation. It also establishes the structure of the federal government, provides for armed and security forces, and defines the legislative, executive, and international jurisdictions that govern the relationship between the federation and the member emirates (Tarbuck & Lester, 2009; Khedr & Alnuaimi, 2010). There are five federal institutions constitutionally provided for. These are the Federal Supreme Council (FSC – executive), the President of the Union a nd the Vice-President, the Council of Ministers of the Union, the Federal National Council (FNC – legislative), and the Judiciary of the Union. ... The legislative body, the Federal National Council, is a unicameral body comprised of 40 members, 20 of whom are elected by 7,000 notables who represent different tribes and social groups, and the remaining 20 are appointed by the rulers of the Emirates upon their discretion. Abu Dhabi and Dubai appoint eight members each, Sharjah and Ra’s al Khaymah six each, and four members each for Ajman, Umm al Oaywayn, and Al Fujayrah. Foundations of UAE Law The core principles of UAE law are drawn from Sharia, the fundamental Islamic law. However, most of the legislation enacted in the country are a combination of Islamic and European civil law concepts. The blend is not that far-fetched, since both of these systems are influenced by the Egyptian legal code that was established in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. There is apparently a strong leaning on the French legal concepts in the UAE as is shared in the European countries, in comparison to the distinctly different UK common l aw (Khedr & Alnuaimi, 2010). Federal Commercial Company Law – Forms of Business Entities Prior to 1984, there was no federal commercial company law, thus each Emirate formulated their own practices and procedures governing the establishment of business organizations within its own jurisdiction. The need was felt for a codified commercial legislation to address the concerns of international business in the country; this led to the promulgation of the Federal Commercial Company Law No. 8 of 1984, which was fully implemented by early 1993. This Law specifies that it is a requirement that UAE nations own at least 51 per cent of all public and private shareholding companies, as well